There I was standing in the isle at Victoria Market. Stalls either side. Belts, wallets and jeans. Today it was jeans.
“He’s a big boy,” the old lady exclaimed as she put her measuring tape around my waist. Yes, I think I was about 12 years old and my waist was 90cm. Mum stood and nodded proudly since coming from India being a “big boy” was considered a measure of “healthiness”. I remember it well because I didn’t know what I felt. Of course, when I hit high school I found many reasons not to be a big boy anymore and battled hard to lose weight.
Moving along, I remember whilst I was working at Carrum, I was sitting at my desk and my patient looked at me and said, “Doc, I can see you’re putting on weight. You know I left my last doctor because they got fat and I couldn’t take them seriously anymore. They simply weren’t walking the talk.” In a humble and practical way, I accepted what my patient had to say. How could I tell patients to do as I say, not as I do? It would be akin to telling them to quit smoking when I smelled like cigarettes.
So, for all of us, it’s really a question of what we accept as normal or not. Wherever that line is drawn, we need to challenge any thinking that may be limiting or that writes off our own power to adjust things. A common one is to accept limitations in the context of “getting old”. At any stage of life, there will be things you can change and there’ll be things you can’t. That’s for each of us to consider and decide. And with that said – here goes …
Posture
It’s a powerful thing to maintain an upright posture for as long as you can. Of course, everyone at one stage or another was reminded to “stand up straight”, but it’s not just for the aesthetic benefit that it’s worth doing. Bad posture is related to neck pain, shoulder pain, arm pain, hand issues, back pain and headaches. These could also find their origin in poor posture. Recently I read an article in The Age newspaper which talked about this. It was helpful. It challenged the commonly held notion that poor posture just happens over time. And equally that it can be corrected by simply pulling your shoulders back and reminding yourself to stand straight. Rather it’s a matter and consequence of maintaining adequate muscle function and strength around your neck, back and shoulders that keeps your posture from deteriorating. Without going into details about the exercises themselves, I’d encourage you to take that as a challenge, and see how much you can improve your posture throughout your life.
“Middle-aged spread”
Now here I accept that there are many reasons the body biologically tends to put on weight as we age. Menopause, other changes to our metabolism and even what we can physically do all have inputs. For example, if you have painful knees, it’s hard to walk as much as you once would. Nevertheless, the idea that we all “fill out” as we age is simply not there to accept as a fundamental truth in and of itself. I’ve heard that myself, “Yes Floyd, you’ll find you’ll ‘fill out’ down the track”. I reckon that’s very self-limiting and may even ‘grants’ me the right to become overweight as I age.
So, coming back to this, I am thankful to that patient who challenged me to not to put on too much weight. And for my dad who used to pull me up often to say, “Stop slouching,” (although he didn’t quite tell me how beyond standing straight). And I’d put it to you that rejecting these poorly conceived ideas of “normal ageing” will pave the way to a more empowered view of your health.
Once again, everyone’s got their individual situation, and we’re here to understand that situation to help change what we can, accepting sometimes there’s surely things we can’t change. But draw that line carefully, with a fine-tipped pen.
